After Arsenal were thoroughly outplayed by Paris Saint Germain on their way to a 1-0 win in the 1st leg of the Champions League semifinal, manager Mikel Arteta called for his troops to produce something special in the second leg at Paris if they wanted to have a chance at qualifying for the final.
“We have to go to Paris and win the game. We are more than capable of doing it. If you want to be in the Champions League final, you have to do something special. And we are going to need to do something special in Paris,” Arteta said.
Ousmane Dembele’s early goal gave PSG a win over Arsenal on Tuesday in the first leg of their semifinal, and only a couple of late misses prevented the advantage from growing bigger. The former Borussia Dortmund and Barcelona man opened the scoring in the fourth minute after he was left all alone in the area and was picked out by Khvicha Kvaratskhelia for a first-time finish that snuck in via the far post.
Having already eliminated Premier League champion Liverpool and Aston Villa in the knockout stages, PSG outplayed Arsenal as well in a stadium where it lost 2-0 in the league phase in October.
This youthful PSG side has come a long way since then, and once again showed that it’s a better team without superstar Kylian Mbappe — whose Real Madrid lost 3-0 at the Emirates Stadium in the quarterfinals.
“We showed the kind of team we are,” PSG coach Luis Enrique said. “We tried to play our way and scored the goal early playing the way we play.”
Both teams are looking for a first Champions League title, and second final. PSG lost to Borussia Dortmund at this stage last year. The French side lost to Bayern Munich in its only Champions League final in 2020, while Arsenal was runner-up to Barcelona in 2006.
(With agency inputs)
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